Archive for the ‘Workouts’ Category
Caffeine Good or Bad?
Caffeine, just about everyone has an opinion on this heavily consumed chemical. Some see it as a useful tool in the fitness area (like me), and others consider it to be really bad stuff! As a friend of caffeine, I am going to point out a few items of interest and new research into this controversial supplement.
What the heck is caffeine?
Caffeine is a psychoactive drug, yep it affects your brain and your mood (you coffee drinkers will be well aware of this). Caffeine is a bitter (try chewing a caffeine tablet – yuck) white crystalline xanthine alkaloid that acts as a psychoactive stimulant drug and a mild diuretic (makes you pee more).
Caffeine was discovered by a German chemist, Friedrich Ferdinand Runge, in 1819 (and I bet he was up all night!) He coined the term “kaffein”, a chemical compound in coffee, which in English became caffeine. Caffeine is also called guaranine when found in guarana, mateine when found in mate, and theine when found in tea; all of these names are synonyms for the same chemical compound.
Caffeine is found in many plants and is used by most folks to increase alertness and focus, and sometimes, just o get through the rest of the workday. Break out the coffee and Red Bull. So, other than making me feel pretty good, what else can this chemical do?
1.It causes vasoconstriction – (constricts your blood vessels) this can help alleviate headaches.
2.It can widen the airways in your lungs, which can be helpful to asthmatics.
3.Causes fat cells to be released into the blood stream – allowing the body to use them as energy.
4.Boosts your metabolism – which assists in weight loss.
5.Reduces the perceived effort during weight lifting exercises – this can make your workout feel easier.
6.May reduce the possibility of developing Parkinson’s disease (you don’t want this illness).
7.Reduces muscle pain during intense exercise – allows you to go harder or longer.
8.Caffeine does make you pee more but in healthy people it does not lead to dehydration.
And guess what?
It can also significantly lower the risk of diabetes due to its insulin regulating ability.
Ok, so it has all these positive benefits, there’s got to be some bad stuff. Of course there is. Like anything, too much can be bad, and if you’re sensitive to the stuff, you should cut back or cut it out. Here’s a few of the negative items;
1.Caffeine can cause insomnia, nervousness, irritability and related disorders.
2.Excessive use can lead to over-acidity in your stomach leading to ulcers and other nasties.
3.While OK for us humans, this chemical is really bad for dogs, parrots and horses. (And really bad for spiders.)
4.Caffeine can exacerbate existing conditions of the heart – but no studies have shown that it adversely affects the healthy heart.
How should you take caffeine?
For day to day use, whatever beverage is your choice. Getting caffeine through tea or coffee (and chocolate) has the added benefit of a big dose of healthy antioxidants. For exercise purposes try taking a caffeine supplement (tablet or powder) in a dosage between 100 & 400 milligrams around 1 hour before working out. Experiment with the dosage to find what works for you. I tried 400mgs and it was far too much for me (shake,rattle and roll), but 200mgs was just right!
I believe that caffeine is a useful and moderately healthy supplement when used smartly. Remember to always consult your doctor if in doubt. If you have any serious medical conditions do your research before taking any chemicals. As a final note, the most recent studies have shown no links between caffeine intake and miscarriage. I would probably reduce the intake as a general health measure anyway!
Taking Supplements Is all About Timing
There are lots of supplements now available for bodybuilding to help add more muscle or to get stronger and to recover faster. As the number of supplements that one can use and afford gets greater and people have to figure out when the best time to take various supplements is and what amount to achieve the greatest affect so that the money you spend is spent wisely and you get the greatest gains in the shortest amount of time. To look at what supplements you should take during the day there are some key times of day that supplementation is based around these are early morning, pre-workout, post-workout and before sleep.
Some supplements are more important than others, there is some debate about which supplements are ranked more important but there is general agreement that protein is the most important followed by creatine then following those are arginine, tribulus, glutamine and BCAAs.
Here is a schedule that you could follow if you were using these six supplements
Morning
40 Grams of Protein
2-3 Grams of Arginine
This is needed to supply the body with protein and amino acids after 8 hours fasting this will help prevent any muscle breakdown.
Pre Workout
3-5 Grams of Creatine
20 Grams of Protein
40 Grams of Carbohydrate.
5 Grams BCAA
Creatine is taken pre workout to help boost strength and endurance with the whey protein as well and the carbohydrate to provide energy.
Post Workout
3-5 Grams of Creatine
40 Grams of Protein
40 Grams of Carbohydrate.
5 Grams BCAA
Sleep Time
40 grams of Protein
2-3 grams of Arginine
Before you go to sleep you need to endure your body has adequate protein for 8 hours, carbohydrate is avoided at this time to prevent it being converted to fat. The Arginine helps boost growth hormone levels during sleep.
There are other supplements available the ones I have mentioned here are some of the most popular ones. You may want to experiment to see what works best for you but here is a schedule of these supplements if you had access to all of these you may want to experiment to see which combinations work best for you.
Why Is It Essential To Lose Weight?
Losing weight to look good and have comfortable fitting clothes is a worthwhile and enviable goal for many people. More importantly weight loss should be considered due to the for risk to health of being either overweight or obese. These risks are now well known and can lead to a reduce life expectancy by up to 4 to 5 years. This number actually doubles because a healthy lifestyle can increase longevity by the same number of years again. This is commonly known as reduced mortality. Another term that is also worth remembering is increased morbidity. This means the likelyhood of somebody suffering for longer from lifestyle diseases until the day they die. The types of dieases that can be picked up from eating too much red meat, having a high sugar, saturated fat and salt intake, having excess dairy products, smoking and excess drinking combined with little or no exercise are. Taking Weight Loss supplements such as Green Stingers can help reduce weight effectively for overweight and obese individuals but as stated before it should be part of a holistic program of lifestyle changes.
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Muscle BuildBuilding Guide
You are working hard and sweating it out because you want to build hard muscles. You want to lose all your fats and you’re thinking that you have to limit your intake of food while doing your body building exercises; combining body building and diet. If you have grown to believe that combining both exercise and diet is the ideal solution to losing weight and gaining muscles, you have come to the right conclusion. But starving yourself is not the right kind of diet while you are doing body building. In fact you need to be eating a lot more. Body building requires a lot of energy and burns a lot of calories in your body.
You need to replace them as soon as you have finished your rounds of exercise routine. Replacing your lost calories is essential in order for you to bulk up your muscles. Your body requires fuel in order to perform body building exercises and your body’s fuel is food – it’s your source of energy. Never start your exercise routine on an empty stomach because you will not have the energy to lift the weights necessary in building muscle mass. Give your body the raw materials it needs by eating the right diet. Body building diet is rich in protein and carbohydrates, not fat and less sugar. You need to eat a lot of protein in order to support the build up of muscles.
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Dieting, Weight Loss, And Diet Supplements
Why diet supplement is so important? Many people nowadays follow some type of diet. That diet usually means eating specific quantities of some healthy foods, exercising, etc. Some type of diet supplement is used either when the diet doesn’t provide for adequate intake of necessary nutrition, vitamins, and minerals, or if the person doesn’t want to or is not able to follow a specific diet. Diet supplement term usually means some product made of one or more of the fundamental nutrients, for example vitamins, minerals, and proteins. It is not a drug. It can not fully replace some type of diet, as supplement does not provide all the recognized nutritional benefits of foods. What it does, it provides you with some specific (or a mix of) vitamins, minerals, herbs, botanicals, amino acids, metabolites, etc.
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The Role Of L-Glutamine In Building Muscle
L-glutamine remains the supplement of choice for many bodybuilders. It is a free form amino acid that can be found naturally in beans, meat, fish, poultry and dairy products. It is also an important component of protein powders and is one of the twenty non-essential amino acids found in the body.
It is widespread throughout the body and plays an important role in protein metabolism. From a bodybuilder’s perspective, glutamine’s strength is its ability to reduce the amount of muscle deterioration that occurs as a result of intense physical workouts. Failure to replace the high levels of glutamine consumed during intense exercise could result in greater susceptibility to illness due to a weakening of the immune system. In addition, glutamine stolen from the muscles to maintain the immune system must be replaced to keep those muscles building.
Bodybuilders can benefit from taking 10 grams of l-glutamine each day, preferably taken post-workout to enhance its recuperative effects. As a nutrient that occurs naturally in the body glutamine is safe to take although ingesting excessive amounts could cause an upset stomach.
Choosing Muscle Building Supplement
Sound nutrition forms the basis of any muscle building program and no amount of supplementation with the latest and greatest products will make up for bad eating habits. The bottom line is, bodybuilding supplements should be used IN ADDITION to regular food, not INSTEAD OF it.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s go on to think about what supplements could be of use and this is something that can only be determined by your physical and performance goals. Don’t make the mistake of copying your training partners or believing all the garbage spouted in magazine ads. Decide first what you want to achieve and then choose the supplements that will help you reach your goals.
To help you make an informed choice, the most popular and useful bodybuilding supplements available today are listed below, broadly divided into two goal-related categories.
Determined to build muscle? This cannot be achieved without dedication, sheer hard work and sound nutrition. With a solid foundation in place you can help the process along with supplements like creatine, whey protein, prohormones, testosterone boosters and amino acids.
Need to lose fat? There is no point in building awesome muscles if they’re covered by layers of fat. Once again, the key to success is hard work but you can boost fat loss by using products from supplement categories that include fat burners, stimulant-free products, appetite suppressants and carb blockers.
Many more supplements are available to support your bodybuilding endeavors. These include energy boosters and products aimed at enhancing the condition of your mind and body.
The Gluts Are Sagging and My Mind is Goin Thru Them Changes
I have often said that for me a mental tired is worse than a physical tired, and since I spend most of the day in front of my computer now, I can back that statement up. Even though I try to take regular stretch breaks during the day, by the end of work my back and neck are sore, my body is stiff, and I really don’t feel like doing any training. I definitely don’t want to exercise for another hour when I’m already stiff, tired and sore from work.
The mental sluggishness and physical aches from eight hours behind a desk comes mainly from sitting, and doing the same tasks, stress and boredom. You get to work a few muscle groups, like wrists, shoulders and neck muscles, but the major muscle groups, like hamstrings and gluts, are pretty much unused. Constant contraction leads to tension, and disuse leads to stiffness, both of which create soreness. The psychological drain from both over-demand (stress) and under-demand (boredom) is often made worse if you are in a location with poor air circulation and poor lighting. In addition, the lack of physical activity at work means that the body is not getting expanded blood circulation, so the cells of the body may be undernourished.
Because all of this makes me feel so fatigued, it seems like what I need to do is to fall on the couch for a night of vegging out with beer and pizza, while channel surfing the tube. Sounds good but … What is really the better choice, physically and mentally, is to make up for the lack of movement and slow metabolism of the work day with a good exercise session. Activity is the antidote to the sedentary lifestyle. Even just a moderate 20-minute walk will ease the tension in lower back muscles and improve metabolism and circulation. A more strenuous cardio session will really help get oxygen to the blood, nourish the cells, and clear my head. Strength and flexibility exercises should get the large muscles going, loosen tight muscle groups, and promote better balance for the entire body.
I already know how good exercise is after I do it, but the problem is getting started. The key is to make the choice automatic, and limit the last minute, after work decision process. Here are some tips and mental tricks to help me to Just Do It!
Reminder: Exercise is an important part of counteracting work stress and fatigue.
Reminder: Regular exercise is necessary for health, not a part time option if I feel like it.
Reminder: I really do enjoy my exercise time. It’s time I take just for me and I feel better because of it.
Schedule training times like any business or personal appointment.
Make it easy to exercise by using convenient facilities, carrying exercise gear with you, scheduling a time right before or right after another commitment, etc. I have a treadmill in the Family Room.
When I am really whipped, I can skip the high demand exercise session and choose something light, easy and enjoyable, rather than forcing the hard work or canceling altogether.
Learn simple workouts, like a walking trail or a home treadmill, for times when it is difficult to do more elaborate training. Resistance Bands or the always popular push ups and sit ups.
Make a commitment to classes, a trainer, a friend or a training group to help you meet the obligation to yourself. It is always better for me to workout with someone so I don’t get bored or lazy.
Alternate activities to keep them fresh and provide variety. Isometrics, Weights, Treadmill, Bike, Elipticals, Rowing, Stairs, alternate different muscle groups, etc.
If you miss a session, or even a few days, just get yourself right back into exercise. It is counterproductive to beat yourself up psychologically.
A realistic exercise routine after dinner, works for me, and almost always makes me feel a lot better, physically and mentally.
Serious Muscle Mass with Methyl-1D
Here is a supplement that is getting some good response. at Supplements To Go…
Methyl 1-D from LG Sciences is the only product that can be used continuously, while the benefits just keep increasing. This is the only legal form of prohormone, that naturally supports hormone production. We promise you will love Methyl-1-D and it will replace all other supplements in its class.
If you are serious about increasing your muscle mass then Methyl 1-D is the right product for you.
Methyl 1-D does not have estrogen effects and doesn’t cause hair loss associated with other products. Also it supports greater use of glucose as energy and fat burning effects. This is by far the safest product on the market that still gives prohormone results. You’ll get solid gains in muscle mass without the bloated look you get from many steroids.
If you have wanted to achieve the physique all the women notice, other men look up to, and be the guy that is successful and popular, let Methyl 1-D help get you there. The hidden secret for the success of the “Leader of the Pack†men isn’t looks or brains, but a cascade of hormones that effect everything about him; his stamina, sexual performance, and overall edge on the competition.
This cascade of hormones has been extensively studied, but until now, the way to boost this hormonal cascade was unknown to the majority of the male population. Methyl-1-D, is the way to optimize the anabolic hormones in the bloodstream.
ACL MCL Menicus surgery recovery and nutrition
It has been 9 months since my knee surgery and thinks are starting to really look up. I have been worried that I would always walk with a limp, and that running would always hurt or have pain invloved. I have not been training my legs very often because it always seemed to hurt my back after doing a leg workout. This may have been from my posture while doing the leg workout. I have been on a steady diet of Beverly International Nutrition products since my surgery. I contribute my recovery to the quality supplements. Your body needs god nutrition to recovery from injury, not just rehab.
Since my surgery I have started palying flag-football again. My first game was I slightly nervous. I have always been in a god athlete and flag football has been a sport I have excelled at. I was selected to the the flag football hall of fame even though I still a active player. My team, The BUCS have won numerous tournaments and has won its league championship 4 years running. I was apprehensive that my skills would be deminished and that I would hurt the team. Well my fears were were correct. My ability to explode on the ball and cut while running were greatly hampered. Mostly because I would not allow myself to do it. We won our first game but I did not play well myself. Our 2nd and 3rd game ended up in losses. I played better and got more mobility in my knee but I alone could not change the outcome of the game. We won our fourth game in overtime and once again I didn’t make any mistakes but did not dominate as I used to do in the past.
My knee feels so much better than it has in the past few months but I’m still very aware of it. It makes noises and pops, which never makes one feel good. However I do feel like I can start training legs and work on my molbility now. My upper body has progressed nicely and the Beverly Muscle provider has played a big role in my muscle building efforts. My weight is back to 210 pounds, I was at 215 before the surgery but lost 25 lbs due to the operation. I would like to get up to 220 and work back down to 215 by burning some fat with Beverly Lean Out.
Our Sunday league starts sept 21st and you can see the videos and game highlights at http://www.myspace.com/kingsports1